Company: Specialty Life Insurance

Position Overview The Vice-President, People & Governance provides executive leadership across Specialty Life Insurance’s People, Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, payroll, organizational effectiveness, governance, compliance, privacy, regulatory affairs, internal audit, quality assurance, advisor licensing and contracting, and Canadian legal administration functions.

As a member of the executive leadership team, the Vice-President serves as a strategic advisor to senior leadership on workforce strategy, organizational design, culture, governance, regulatory compliance, enterprise risk, and organizational change. The role is responsible for ensuring the Company maintains a high-performing workforce, strong culture, effective governance practices, and a robust compliance and regulatory environment.

Key Responsibilities

People Strategy & Human Resources

- Develop and execute enterprise people strategies aligned with business objectives, growth plans, and organizational priorities.
- Provide executive leadership for Human Resources through the Director, Human Resources.
- Oversee employee relations, workplace investigations, complaints, disciplinary matters, and employment terminations to ensure consistency, fairness, and legislative compliance.
- Act as a senior HR advisor on employment disputes, investigations, audits, and litigation.
- Lead workforce planning, succession planning, organizational design, leadership development, performance management, and employee engagement.
- Champion a high-performing and inclusive culture focused on accountability, collaboration, innovation, continuous learning, and employee well-being.
- Monitor workforce analytics, including turnover, retention, absenteeism, engagement, and productivity, and provide strategic recommendations to leadership.
- Oversee compensation, benefits, recognition, wellness, and talent development programs.
- Lead organizational change initiatives supporting growth, transformation, and operational improvement.

Talent Acquisition & Recruitment
- Provide strategic oversight of recruitment and selection activities across Canada.
- Develop workforce planning and recruitment strategies that strengthen employer branding, improve quality of hire, and reduce time-to-fill.
- Oversee recruitment pipelines and candidate engagement strategies.
- Lead executive recruitment and succession planning.
- Ensure new hires receive required tools and documentation on their first day.
- Establish and monitor diversity and equal chance goals.

Payroll, Compensation & Benefits
- Provide executive oversight of end-to-end payroll, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and compliance.
- Ensure compliance with CRA, CPP, EI, income tax, ROEs, T4s, statutory remittances, and applicable payroll legislation.
- Oversee payroll governance, audits, reconciliations, and internal controls.
- Lead executive compensation, salary administration, bonus programs, commission structures, benefits, and total rewards.




- Manage key vendor relationships for payroll, HRIS, and benefits.

Governance, Compliance, Audit & Regulatory Oversight
- Provide executive leadership for Canadian compliance, privacy, licensing, quality assurance, and governance functions.
- Develop and maintain enterprise governance frameworks, policies, controls, and compliance programs.
- Oversee internal audits across HR, payroll, operations, governance, compliance, licensing, privacy, quality assurance, and employment practices.
- Lead external audits, carrier audits, regulatory examinations, and government investigations.
- Ensure compliance with applicable insurance regulations, privacy and employment legislation, contractual obligations, and corporate policies.
- Oversee compliance monitoring, investigations, complaint escalations, corrective actions, and regulatory reporting.
- Monitor regulatory developments and assess their impact on the organization.
- Serve as executive lead for applicable audits and examinations conducted by regulators, government agencies, insurance carriers, and other regulatory bodies.
- Develop annual enterprise audit plans, risk assessments, and mitigation strategies.

Advisor Licensing, Contracting & Distribution Governance
- Oversee advisor licensing administration and regulatory compliance across Canadian jurisdictions.
- Ensure advisor onboarding, contracting, licensing, continuing education tracking, and regulatory filing processes are administered effectively.
- Oversee advisor contract administration, maintenance, interpretation, and governance.
- Partner with Business Development leadership to align advisor recruiting, onboarding, contracting, licensing, and conduct management.
- Monitor advisor compliance trends, licensing risks, and regulatory obligations and implement corrective action where required.

Privacy, Quality Assurance & Risk Management
- Oversee privacy governance, privacy incident management, data protection, and related compliance activities.
- Partner with Technology, Finance & Operations, Marketing, Business Development, and other functions to embed privacy and governance requirements into business processes.
- Provide executive leadership for Quality Assurance programs supporting advisor conduct, customer interactions, operational controls, and regulatory compliance.
- Oversee compliance reviews, monitoring, remediation programs, complaint handling, investigations, and root-cause analysis.
- Identify and assess enterprise governance and compliance risks and develop appropriate mitigation strategies.

Legal & Corporate Affairs




- Oversee Canadian legal administration and relationships with external legal counsel.
- Coordinate legal review of contracts, commercial agreements, regulatory matters, complaints, investigations, vendors, and other matters requiring external expertise.
- Support leadership in managing legal, contractual, governance, and reputational risks.
- Support Board governance, corporate records, resolutions, and statutory filings.
- Oversee corporate insurance programs, including D&O;, E&O;, and cyber insurance.
- Provide strategic guidance on the governance implications of business initiatives, partnerships, and organizational decisions.

Corporate Services

- Provide executive oversight of facilities, office administration, procurement, vendor management, workplace safety, business continuity, physical security, and emergency preparedness.
- Lead office expansions, lease negotiations, renovations, and related capital projects.

Executive Leadership
- Serve as a member of the executive leadership team and contribute to enterprise strategy and execution.
- Support Board and Committee governance activities as required.
- Develop executive dashboards and report key workforce, governance, compliance, culture, operational, and risk metrics to executive leadership and the Board.
- Promote ethical decision-making, accountability, integrity, and strong corporate governance.
- Allocate resources effectively across the People & Governance portfolio.
- Lead, mentor, and develop leaders and employees within the function.

Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Industrial Relations, Law, Public Administration, Commerce, or a related field.
- Advanced degree or professional designation such as CHRL, CHRE, CIPP, CRM, ICD, legal training, or other relevant credentials is considered an asset.
- 10–15 years of progressive leadership experience across Human Resources, Governance, Compliance, Risk Management, Legal Administration, or related functions.
- Experience within insurance, financial services, or another highly regulated industry.
- Demonstrated experience leading multiple corporate functions and influencing executive-level decision-making.
- Strong knowledge of employment legislation, governance, privacy requirements, regulatory compliance, and organizational effectiveness.
- Experience working with regulators, auditors, external legal counsel, and executive governance bodies.
- Strong strategic planning, leadership, communication, analytical, and change management capabilities.
- Exceptional judgment, integrity, discretion, and relationship management skills.
- Bilingualism in English and French is preferred.

Key Competencies

Strategic Leadership | Organizational Effectiveness | Governance & Regulatory Compliance | Risk Management | Culture & Employee Engagement | Privacy & Quality Assurance | Leadership & Talent Development | Analytical Decision-Making | Communication | Adaptability & Flexibility

📌 VP, People & Governance (Canada)
🏢 Specialty Life Insurance
📍 Canada